Links To More Avenues Of My Mindful Creations

Saturday, November 27, 2010

So this little cutie has been hanging around in my craft room all week just waiting to be made into a card. I got her colored, designer papers picked out, cardstock and embellishments picked out and then my son came home from school......then Thanksgiving happened....and well....there this cutie sat waiting. Finally found some time to put her together today. Had to do some quick cutting and putting everything together as one of the challenges I am entering this into is ending tonight. So I was working fast. Now my craft room looks like Edward Scissors Hands has been here! Here is the card I made:

Monday, November 22, 2010

Sorry guys, I should have posted this a couple of days ago but I have been busy with the upcoming holiday this week. The winner chosen by random.org of my prize from the Sugar Crash blog hop has never emailed me with her mailing address. I let random.org do it's magic once again and have a new winner...

Congratulations to Meredith!

Here is what Meredith (Ma) had to say:

"Oh wow, this is such a great project! No more boring plates to load with goodies for me!!! My son and I are *so* going to case this idea!!! Thank you!"

I know the prize is going out this time as I have Meredith's address. I will be mailing this tomorrow.....enjoy and thanks for checking out my project during the Sugar Crash Blog Hop!

Monday, November 15, 2010

November is a month jammed pack full of birthdays for me. It's probably my busiest month for making and sending out birthday cards. This one is going to someone special who is turning 21. Her birthday is not actually till December 4th but she currently is spending a semester in Spain studying so this needed to be mailed early to make it over there in time. She has discovered the discos while in Spain and loves to go dancing. So I thought dancing Rosie from Karen's Doodles was perfect for the image. Hope she likes it.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

A week ago was the Sugar Crash online crop over in the CardSwaps forum of CardMakers. You might have read one of my earlier posts as well as participated in the blog hop that was also part of the crop. 10 different challenges were posted for the online crop for everyone to try. I would have loved to have tried them all but only had time to do four of the challenges. The theme for the crop was lots of holiday glitter, bling and glam. It sure was hard trying to get good pictures to show all the bling! The picture above was for a challenge where we were to make two or more gift tags. I used my cute House Mouse stamp and glittered up the ornament as well as I used metallic cardstock for the border.

For the picture below the challenge was to make a suspension card. I used my scraps left over from my project for the blog hop to make my card suspending a snowflake. This is the first time I have tried making a suspension card and I really enjoyed it. I will be trying this technique again.
The next two pictures were for the challenge that required us to make a gift card holder. I used Dawn Griffith's tutorial to make this which you can find HERE.
This last picture is for the challenge that required us to use silver plus one other color. I chose to use white as my other color. This was the hardest picture to take. I used a really shiny metallic silver cardstock and no matter what I did....or what angle I used....I could not get a good picture.
I really enjoyed the online crop and I am looking forward to the next one!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

A quick post to show a gift card holder I made for a swap I am in. The swap called for us to make 5 gift card holders using any design of our choice. I had been wanting to try this design after seeing a tutorial by Gina K. The video tutorial is in two parts. You can find part one HERE and part two HERE.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

I made this awhile ago for a friend who just moved into a new home. Didn't want to post it till she saw it first. I love surfing You Tube for "how to" videos and in one of my surfing trips I discovered Dawn Griffith's video tutorial for making Squash Books. I thought this would be a cute idea to use in place of the typical card. It was fun and super easy to make but honestly....when it came to taking pictures of it to post....that presented a problem...LOL! When you open the book it unfolds in many different ways or maybe the word exploding would best describe it. There was no really good way for me to photograph it for you to see how it works. The inside is made up of squares and triangles from folding three square sheets of paper. On one of the squares I have an image that I colored and the other three squares say "Congratulations On Your New Home". The entire book is held closed with a belly band that I made from ribbon that I also attached a butterfly charm to. The front and back covers are chipboard coasters that I covered with the designer paper.Below are some pictures of the inside. You can find Dawn's tutorial HERE. You can also get a much better idea what the finished product looks like in her video.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

The winner of my RAK from the Sugar Crash Blog Hop is.......chosen by Random.org...

drum roll please......

MaryB

Mary B. said...
"Susie, you have turned me to a life of crime...I just became a purse snatcher! I have a bunch of white lunch sacks and this will be a perfect way to use them! Thank you so much for sharing the idea, inspiration, talent and fudge making tradition (peanut butter fudge is my favorite too)! Perhaps you can bring some when I am behind bars for purse snatching??!!LOL..Thanks again!"

Should I put a file into that fudge Mary to help you with the great escape? LOL! Please email me your snail mail address at : sehirsch at sbcglobal dot net and I will get your DCWV Winter Mat Pack in the mail to you.
Mary you have till November 14th to respond and claim your prize. If I have not heard from you by then a new winner will be chosen.
Thank you for hopping on the blog hop and hope we all inspired you to get creative!

Thursday, November 4, 2010

You are on the CardSwaps Sugar Crash Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from Christy Croll's blog. The fabulous Christy from Tiddly Inks who is also one of our guest designers on the hop. If you didn't arrive from Christy's Tiddly Inks blog then you need to head back to the beginning which is Lora's blog. You won't want to miss anything.

There are 16 stops along the hop.Why should you hop along to them all? Well because each stop is loaded with inspiration to get your holiday mojo crafting juices flowing. You might also find a free digital image or sketch to pick up along the way as well. Also each host is offering a prize to one random winner who leaves a comment on their blog. So please be sure to leave a comment on each to let the host know you were there. For my prize I am offering the new...

Die Cuts With A View Winter Printed Combo MatStack

To qualify for a chance to win my prize you must leave a comment by 11:59pm CST November 6th. Be sure to check back here on the 7th when the winner will be posted...it could be YOU!

You are also invited to participate in the Sugar Crash Crop at CardSwaps, too. There are 10 challenges to be posted over the next 3 days (November 4-6, 2010) and EVERY challenge will have a winner. What’s the prize, you ask? A paper crafts book from CardMaker Magazine!! PLUS, one lucky crop participant will win a card making kit that makes 50 cards!!!! It’s very cool… you MUST play along. And if that is not enough...there will be games to play daily too! Hope to see you over at the crop which you can find HERE.

Now on to my project that I am showcasing! The theme for the hop and crop is Sugar Crash which means a holiday theme with lots of glitter, glam, shimmery , glitzy things!!! I decided to make a paper bag purse that would hold Christmas goodies such as candy or maybe some packages of hot chocolate. It's a simple quick project to make and would be perfect to give to friends or coworkers filled with home baked cookies or candy!

I totally glitzed my project up with all kinds of shimmer and glitter. Here are the supplies I used:

Printed Paper is by Heidi Grace Designs
Cardstock is Bazzill's Shimmer Gemstones
Image is by Digital Delights, colored with Prismacolor Colored Pencils and I used some Stickles to make the snow shimmer
Snowflake Dies are by Cuttlebug and embellished up with rhinestones.
Other tools used are Spellbinders circle Nestabilities and SU's tag punches
Purse handle is shimmery ribbon by Offray.
I used a white lunch paper bag instead of the brown as I thought it looked nicer for my theme. Check your local party store for other colors!

Side view:

Back view:Open view:
You can find full instructions and tutorial HERE on how to make your own paper bag purse.
Christmas has always been a favorite time of the year for me. There is something magical about the holiday. One of the things I always enjoyed was making fudge with my mother. We would make several batches and make packages up to give to friends and family. I shared that tradition with my daughter and the past few years my son has joined in on the yearly Christmas fudge making. A favorite in this household is peanut butter fudge. I think the paper bag purses will be perfect for delivering batches of fudge to friends and family this year!

I hope you enjoyed your stop here along the hop and I hope my project inspires you to try it. One last reminder before you hop on:You have until 11:59PM CST, November 6, 2010, to post your comment on the blogs on the hop (that includes mine, please! Everyone that comments on my blog will be entered in to the drawing for a prize from me. In addition, if you want to participate in the challenges for the SugarCrash Crop go check it out after the blog hop and upload your completed projects by 11:59PM CST, November 8, 2010. There are prizes to win there, too!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

A quick post and a shout out to all my crafty and blogging friends. There will be an online crop this week, November 4th thru the 6th over at CardSwaps. There will be daily challenges and games posted. Prizes, compliments of CardMaker magazines will be awarded to random winners of each challenge for those who post their finished project by midnight November 8th. Yes you have two extra days to complete any or all challenges after the crop ends!

If that is not enough to get your mojo going for the holidays then you will want to also take a hop on the Sugar Crash Blog Hop that will also being going on at the same time as the crop....November 4 - 6. Each host on the hop will be showcasing a project of their choosing to help inspire your creativity and get those mojo juices flowing. Yours truly is stop #6 on the hop and I picked a fun and easy project that I hope you will like. Be sure to check out all the stops on the hop and leave a comment. Each host on the blog hop has a prize to be given out to a random winner of those who left a comment.

So lots of inspiration, fun and prizes at the Sugar Crash Crop and Blog Hop! You won't want to miss it. For more information be sure to check the CardSwap site HERE and our fearless leader and organizer of the crop, Lora's blog HERE. On the CardSwap site you will find a schedule of events, list of supplies needed for each challenge and sign up for Bingo as well as any other info you may be looking for. Hope to see you there and along the hop!